Suspect with assault rifle arrested at ‘Pizzagate’ restaurant

Since the inception of the Hampstead SRA hoax in early 2015, parents, teachers, and clergy have lived with a terrifying possibility: that all the kidnapping and death threats spouted by promoters and followers of the hoax might take root and result in tragedy. “All it takes is one lunatic”, people have said—and with good reason.

D.C. Police responding Sunday to a report of a gunman at a popular pizza restaurant in Northwest Washington detained a man armed with an assault rifle, according to a police spokeswoman.

D.C. police Chief Peter Newsham said a lone suspect in his 20s walked into the front door of Comet Ping Pong with an assault rifle. Newsham said it appeared as if the suspect may have fired one or multiple shots into the ground. The man has not yet been identified and his motives were not clear.

But Comet Ping Pong, a pizza restaurant on Connecticut Avenue with ping-pong tables that is popular with families, has been caught up in a wave of conspiracy theories and fake-news stories that spread during the presidential campaign that have prompted death threats to the restaurant and nearby businesses.

Startled patrons rushed out of the restaurant onto Connecticut Avenue, taking shelter in nearby businesses and remaining locked down for more than an hour.

Newsham said the license plates on the suspect’s car were not from D.C., Maryland or Virginia. Police said the man may have had an additional weapon, possibly handgun, in his car

Police received a call about a man with a weapon a just before 3 p.m., said Aquita Brown, a spokeswoman for the department.

She said there were no reports of injuries.

It’s not clear what motivated the suspect in Sunday’s incident. The restaurant, however, was swept up in the onslaught of fake news that was prevalent during the presidential campaign.The restaurant’s owner and employees were threatened on social media in the days before the election, the New York Times reported, after fake news stories circulated claiming that then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her campaign chief were running a child sex ring from the restaurant’s back rooms. None of it was true, but the fake stories and threats persisted, some even aimed at the employees’ children. The restaurant’s owner was forced to contact the FBI, local police, Facebook and other social media platforms in an effort to remove the articles.

Within an hour of reports beginning to emerge, conspiracy theorists had started screaming “false flag!”, claiming that the reports were either untrue, or were part of (yet another) conspiracy to discredit the conspiracy theorists (following all that?).

On Sunday, Washington Post reporters involved in reporting on the story were the target of online threats shortly after it posted.

Death threats are just another fact of life for anyone who disagrees that a cult of baby-eating, child-raping Satanists run an industrial-scale baby import business out of a church and school in a busy North London neighbourhood.

Here are just a couple, taken from a video posted by Aaron Dover:

If you have the stomach for it, check out the Trolls page on this blog for a nice cross-section of death threats we’ve received in the year and a half since we took this blog online.

Now, imagine that someone like the Washington suspect reads one of those threats and decides to make good on it. Not a pretty thought, but it’s one the people of Hampstead cope with daily.

Yesterday’s gunman only serves to underline a point we’ve all been screaming from the rooftops since Ella and Sabine published the names and personal information of Hampstead residents online: all it takes is one crazy person with a weapon to tip this thing from madness into tragedy.

Update: Shooter identified

According to The Washington Post, the shooter has now been identified as 28-year-old Edgar Maddison Welch, of Salisbury, N.C. He “walked in the front door of Comet Ping Pong and pointed a firearm in the direction of a restaurant employee. The employee was able to flee and notify police. Police said Welch proceeded to discharge the rifle inside the restaurant”.

“The man told police he had come to the restaurant to “self-investigate” an election-related conspiracy theory involving Hillary Clinton that spread online during her presidential campaign”.

“Police said in addition to the assault rifle, they also recovered two firearms inside the restaurant; an additional weapon was recovered in Welch’s car. Bomb-sniffing dogs and at least one armored vehicle were present at the scene”.

Guess being like most of your commenters, seeing hoaxstead for what it was early, our biggest fear was this type of scenario or worse. As Alex Jones is pushing that this is now “worldwide” Its going to cause a lot more chaos than Hampstead. However, we need be on our toes for how many are using Hampstead as substantial evidence to push this shite. This could get very serious over there. The comments of youtube are wild as hell. I truly hope no harm comes to anyone over there, and hope there are no repercussions for Hampstead.

I feel lucky enough to have once been one of these knee jerking conspiracy theorists and thankfully got to the other side.

This is terrible. Its probably done for some form of martyrdom. A joint investigation into nothing but speculation, breed from 4chan. Yet 4chan supports mayhem, suspect images of young teens, racism, and pushing teens to suicide (An hero) Yet this has become the source for this nonsense, joint investigation into complete hell for these business owners and politicians. I admit to first debating with some, but become easily jaded to the response that its “Well known” the elites are all up to this, as well as being cannibals. I can’t and won’t debate or argue with stupid. You cant win.

Yes, I think 4chan has a great deal to answer for. At least Reddit had the common decency to shut down the “pizzagate” thread; but it has simply moved over to Voat, under the guise of “free speech”.

The problem is that most of the people who bleat about “free speech” don’t have the slightest idea what that term really means: it means, simply, that anyone can express dissenting views, free of government interference. It doesn’t mean “I can publicly accuse anyone I like of anything that takes my fancy”. That’s where slander, libel, defamation, and harassment laws come into play. And in the extreme, accusing someone of, say, running a paedophile ring in the back room of a family restaurant, and then exhorting people to “take action” and do something about it, takes it into the realm of hate speech and death threats.

The co-owner of a bookstore across the street from the restaurant says that the gunman came in “looking for the alleged tunnels” where children were supposedly hidden and tortured. He also said that many businesses in proximity to Comet Ping Pong have also received threats. All of this sounds dismally familiar.

She has already inspired an American to travel to London, financed him and urged others to do likewise.

The Jo Cox murder is the UK’s first casualty in this bizarre new war and many have posted congratulations on websites praising her killer.

Apparently the Ping Pong Pizza restaurant has been packed nightly with local supporters wanting to send a message they will not be intimidated by these creeps but that could have meant more innocents could have been hurt.
Other restaurants on the same Washington block have also had loyal customers flocking there but owners and staff have also received death threats just for being close-by.

We have a president-elect in the USA who seems happy to fan the flames of bigotry and conspiracy just for his advantage who is apparently clueless to the forces he has unleashed not just in the US but abroad.

As you can see with the appalling Angela Power-Disney there is simply no respite from their hysterical wickedness and nothing can divert them (such as facts) from their wicked crusades.

Authorities should have come down like a ton of bricks on these internet defamers and harassers – even here in Oz it is a criminal offense to use libel on the internet, by telephone and so on to cause fear in a person with a possible 5 year prison sentence but try getting police to actually do something- they barely knwo the law themselves. Same same UK. It will probably take another Jo Cox tragedy before they wake up.

I hope you’re wrong—that another innocent person won’t have to die to bring this message home to our law enforcers and courts. But I do think the police here ought to be paying extremely close attention to events in the USA right now. Yesterday’s Comet Ping Pong episode could have turned tragic very quickly, and the same could quite easily happen in the UK.

I agree with you that the primary Hoaxtead mobsters ought to have been arrested right away quick; I’m somewhat heartened by the recent spate of arrests, but frankly feel that they should have been made more than a year ago.

Interesting that on Twitter right now, the main reaction seems to be “oh, here it comes, they’re going to start blaming everyone who participated in #pizzagate now, it’s just an excuse to try and make us look bad”.

Well yes, we are going to start blaming all the knuckleheads who participated in a witch hunt based on a bunch of pretend magic symbols and alleged super-dooper code words. We’ve seen it all before: people who put 2 and 2 together and get 9,485. Think of “researcher” Charlotte Ward and the mental midget Kris Costa, neither of whom can reason their way out of wet paper bags in a rainstorm: do we really want people like this encouraging the not-very-tightly-wrapped among us to commit acts of violence in the name of their crackpot theories?

I suppose the one positive thing about the “they’re just trying to make us look bad” whinge-fest over on Twitter is that at least a few of these numbskulls seem to realise that having some goon show up in a family restaurant carrying an assault rifle and a couple of other weapons is going to make the ninnies behind #pizzagate look very, very bad indeed. Yeah, they look bad now. They looked bad before; it’s just that no one knew about them. Now they’re out in the public view, and that’s a good thing. Watch them twist themselves into pretzels trying to explain this one.

It took a dozen years for someone to take up the nutter’s clarion call, but taken up it was! And that same headcase is still around – somewhat depleted thanks to being exposed for being the fantasists he so surely is – but still out there abusing and terrorising people; making them fear for their safety etc. Immune, it seems, from the law of the land.

“I agree with you that the primary Hoaxtead mobsters ought to have been arrested right away quick; I’m somewhat heartened by the recent spate of arrests, but frankly feel that they should have been made more than a year ago.”

Hoaxtead is one issue.

These games have been played for decades and take many forms. It’s ridiculous and completely unacceptable that certain individuals seem untouchable, the Police and other authorities just don’t take these things seriously – even to the extent they’ve been known to fuel the fires with their inept (some say suspiciously so) bungling!

Hoaxtead happened – and let’s not forget that it real families have had their lives utterly disrupted; at least one has been uprooted from its home and forced to move to the opposite end of the British isles…

And what of the recent spate of arrests? Once wrists are gently slapped they’ll be back on the job. – Rupert Quaintance fully expects to be back in looneyland with his gun-toting mommy for Christmas. Oh, he’s quiet enough just now, but don’t expect that to last once he’s out of reach of the Bobbies.

“Authorities should have come down like a ton of bricks on these internet defamers and harassers – even here in Oz it is a criminal offense to use libel on the internet, by telephone and so on to cause fear in a person with a possible 5 year prison sentence but try getting police to actually do something- they barely knwo the law themselves. Same same UK. It will probably take another Jo Cox tragedy before they wake up.”

Given that the Jo Cox tragedy was itself another Anna Lindh tragedy, how many lives need to be wrecked or destroyed before we get to a stage where the Police WILL get off their arses and do what they should be doing?

In my experience the situation is getting worse. – Phone the police about any common issue and you will probably find yourself talking to an operator whose main job is to find an excuse not to despatch officers…

I reported a burglary in progress the other night; the robbed family are STILL waiting on the Police to attend three days later; that’s just the way it is these days.

I also blame Wikileaks & Julian Assange for their blatant partisan campaign against Clinton. While they have every right to support politically who they want they knowingly allowed sensational emails to be published knowing there were 1000s of lunatics out there who would misinterpret them.

Many people are saying it was because a campaign had begun to accuse Assange of being a pedophile- a claim I don’t believe – but they have actively promoted this garbage knowing there are a million rednecks, armed to the teeth, who thrive on this stuff.

As for Assange, I believe he has gone mad and has completely blown any notion he may receive leniency from the US and it is becoming apparent as I argued with many who actually thought Trump may give him a pardon (although what for as he hasn’t been charged or convicted of any crime yet), the opposite is happening – anyone with half a brain could see Donald Trump is a person who will use you and dump you as soon as your usefulness has vanished. Now that Ecuador has cut of this internet access and I doubt they will restore it, I think Assange has become a millstone around their neck and may end up rotting in that Embassy for years to come.

## Wikileaks were repeatedly tweeting the false Podesta ‘Satanist’ claims and tweeting links to phony stories about then right up until the day of the US election. They have several million followers. If there are any tragedies that come out of all of this Wikileaks and Assange will wear it like a cross of thorns. And like true cowards they remain anonymous while they set out to destroy lives and pervert democratic elections.

### I still believe some sort of control of the internet is on the cards. The Bush government actively pursued the idea that access to the internet could be controlled by just a handful of internet providers who pay the US government $$millions for the privilege and then put ‘gates’ which price out the average consumer or condemn them to a frustrating slow service. Rupert Murdoch is an active proponent for this.

Yes, authorities and social media companies need to get a grip on this Pandora’s box.

It’s been neglected because let’s be honest they either don’t know how or don’t have the will to address it. IMO it’s quite shameful that innocent peoples’ rights to live free from persecution – surely a key role for the state – have not been defended. Since when did death threats start to become a daily fact of life for people? Is this the kind of society we have to accept? How long do people in this community or others for that matter have to live in fear?

Police seem to have been ill prepared for this. While likely they are decent and diligent they are overstretched and seem to lack the understanding, expertise and will to address this failing. Too little too late, I say!

Social media companies need to step up and take responsibility for the monster they have helped create. We all know this is not about free speech, laws are being broken. Present company accepted, it seems that deeply disturbing to me that people are losing sight of what’s decent, real or true anymore.

A good analysis of how this fraud was perpetuated including the very first Tweet about it by an obvious phony “DavidGoldbergNY” – an apparent attempt to give credibility by using a Jewish name in New York with it’s huge Jewish population.

This has been a carefully planned plot and achieved it’s desired result.

The Hampstead madness brought Rupert Wilson Quaintance IV to London from USA looking to break down doors and entertaining notions of having sex with children. All sleazy stories are going to motivate the mentally ill and deviants to act upon them.

Angie has set her epic fail silent rant to private so now only close allies can now bask in her masterclass of twattery.MK Devils are quick off the mark to preserve this timeless classic as a monument for the rest of humanity,lest we forget.

Failed human being Angie claims a fag shortage for her latest scurry into the undergrowth albeit the timing is uncanny with a fair bit of shit about to hit fans in the coming weeks.Angies boomerangs of shit are it seems coming home to roost 🙂

So-called ‘social media’ companies won’t take responsibility simply because it is not what they’re about. They make their money off social discord and conflict, and have no regard for the damage they cause. Nor will they ever until it starts hitting them in the pocket. – It’s the same thing with online selling platforms; they pay lip-service to consumer protection – but are quite happy to have systems that are obfuscatious and conflationary so as to make it difficult or impossible to uphold consumer protection laws…

The internet is a kind of ‘wild west’. Made all the worse by the fact that at local level there is no resource and no will to uphold the laws which theoretically protect people.

Sam has a point in that this will ultimately give those with an agenda to do so an excuse to try and restrict the internet; but the nature of the beast will render that all but impossible. And the real issue here is the reluctance to apply existing laws. This isn’t helped by the fact that civil remedies are practically impossible to access for the average person.

Please let me share with you an experience that I’ve had, (and in some ways, that I’m still having).

In the fall of 2010, I sent the FBI a brief detailing my reasons for believing that unrestrained dissemination of paranoid conspiracy theories and fraudulent rumor-mongering, by political ‘outsiders’ in the US, was likely to incite mentally ‘confused’ and/or deluded persons to commit acts of violence, possibly including assassination attempts, against American political, judicial, military or law enforcement leadership or associated front-line personnel, and that specific academics and activists in certain fields might also be targeted.
I stated that I did not perceive a volitional conspiracy between these political outsiders, but rather a complex web of public communication connecting persons, groups and communities, with a variety of professed primary interests, many of whom would be unlikely to have personal knowledge of each other.
I stated that elements common to many of these conspiracy theories and rumor-panics included; fantasies & delusional beliefs about an international elite of predatory pedophiles in business, government, law enforcement and social institutions, who prey upon the children of less advantaged citizens through complex “ritual abuse” and “mind control” conspiracies, or fantasies & delusional beliefs about secret “brain-washing” programs run by national governments on behalf of an “Illuminati” or “New World Order”.
I named some individuals whom I had reason to believe were engaged in dissemination of such material with genuinely malicious intent, and some individuals who appeared to be targeted by campaigns to incite widedpread, indiscriminate hatred of them.

On January 8, 2011, a paranoid schizophrenic named Jared Lee Loughner attempted to assassinate U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, near Tucson Arizona, killing 6 people and wounding 13 others.
I knew nothing of Loughner, he wasn’t ‘on my radar’ at all, but he was alleged to be obsessed with conspiracy theories promulgated by anti-government theorists. Gabriellle Giffords wasn’t on my lists either, but she was a victim of an apparent assassination attempt by a disturbed individual.

I was far beyond stunned, by this seemingly coincidental tragedy. I went around in a daze for weeks after. I became fearful, even paranoid, about people around me that I knew were sympathetic toward any of the above listed ideas. I probably had a wee ‘break-down’ going on.

Since that time, there have been multiple cases in the US and Canada, of police officers being assassinated by persons obsessed with anti-government conspiracy theories. My prediction continues to be validated, or my mind insists on interpreting events in this way. I sent a short follow-up to my brief, to various authorities, pointing out the apparent validation of my prediction. I’ve never received any replies, but I did become aware that some persons I named were advised by someone to tighten their personal security. I’ve been at a loss, what I could/should do since 2011. So, I do nothing. Just wait for more shoes to drop.

What is this old crow really on about? She must be in her 60s. Does she really think the Truther ‘movement’ is going to adopt her as a star? Clearly she can’t afford a hairdresser with that bleached mess on her head. She should remember that dumping pure bleach on the crown is what killed Jean Harlow as it rotted through to her brain.
You know I think her claim she has a place in Lanzarote is total bullshit. She may have been there for a holiday and posts snaps from that time but her looks do not match. You have to question every single thing this dame says- it’s all smoke and mirrors as she attempts to create a persona that is anything other than what she is- a washed up has-been who has drifted, conned and lied her way through life.

I’m now reading that some of the people who’ve been tapped for roles in said President-elect’s cabinet have actually sent out tweets supporting the pizzagate hoax. The apples don’t fall far from the tree, and all that.

Yes, Assange’s leaks were very conveniently timed, I thought. And yes, if tragedies result from Wikileaks and Assange’s actions, they will have a great deal to answer for.

When I began looking into Hoaxtead, one of the people I met in my internet travels was utterly convinced that the rationale behind the hoax was to justify a UK government clampdown on the internet. I still don’t completely buy this argument, for a couple of reasons—including the fact that the hoax itself, while we think of it as large and all-encompassing, is in fact tiny and obscure in internet terms.

However, I do think that ultimately the unfettered sewage that currently comprises a large part of the internet today will need to be dealt with, and I expect that various governments will begin looking for ways to stem the flow. How ironic that the behaviour of those who bellow and moan the loudest about “repression of free speech” will, in the end, have contributed to its demise online.

Yes, those who claim “if what I’m saying is untrue, why haven’t I been sued for saying it?” are being disingenuous at best. The fact is that it costs a huge amount to launch a lawsuit, and while there are some lawyers willing to accept such cases on a “no-win/no-fee” basis, most people simply lack the resources to push ahead with lawsuits.

That’s not to say that none will result from Hoaxtead: we’ve talked about this in the past, and I can see a few glints of hope on the horizon.

But most people, when faced with harassment of this sort, will turn to the police for protection—in fact, the police urged many who were targetted by the Hoaxtead mob to do so! But the police are sadly under-equipped to cope with the flood of complaints; the laws exist, but it can take herculean efforts to ensure they’re enforced.

“When I began looking into Hoaxtead, one of the people I met in my internet travels was utterly convinced that the rationale behind the hoax was to justify a UK government clampdown on the internet. ”

There is quite a body of opinion – which includes some very credible people – that takes something similar to this line. And it does seem to be something of a pattern when the authorities seek to impose more power. i.e. some crisis that has been allowed to fester is cited that justifies some new impingement on our freedoms.

Some people really do seem absolutely immune to the law of the land, and the question that needs to be answered there is why? Who sanctions this? Then there is the reluctance to apply the law and/or bizarre actions taken by prosecuting authorities that leave more questions than answers. Something stinks.

As I said elsewhere, Hoaxtead is just one case. As you say it is tiny and insignificant in terms of the wider internet. But there does seem to be a pattern and almost a common cast with these things. Hoaxtead had its prototype did it not – the guy up north who abused his own daughter by getting her to repeat his sick fantasies into a mobile phone to frame her grandpa? Where does the storyline for pizzagate emerge from? A tiny insignificant corner of old London town perhaps?

Under-resourced certainly, and lacking in will. Too many take the line that this is all just ‘kids in the playground’ stuff. And certainly when you consider some of the misfits and scroungers involved I can see why there is a temptation to hang back and just let them carry on ‘bitchfighting’.

I obviously don’t know Julian Assange as well as you appear to but the point was that he didn’t trust that Sweden would not simply hand him over to the yanks. Frankly I don’t blame him.

He has stated that he would be happy to be questioned in the UK and I fail to see why that was an issue for Sweden. After 6 years Sweden finally got around to questioning him last month, they could have done that any time in that 6 years. They have left it so long that some of the charges are past statute of limitations, the prosecutor should be sacked for incompetency.

If Sweden wanted to keep him in the country then they shouldn’t have questioned him, closed the case and let him leave.

I have no opinion on the guy either way but this whole thing smells of some Swedish prosecutor on a fishing trip on behalf of the yanks.

It dosent work like that, when someone is accused of a crime (especially if more than one person accuses) the police arrest them, lock them up in a cell for a few hours and then question them, why should Assange be treated different? fact is Britain have an extradition treaty with the US that is much quicker than swedens. the point in arresting and questioning suspects in the nick is to take you out of your comfort zone

I take your point, but I still cannot really get behind the idea that Hoaxtead, the gentleman you refer to up north, and “pizzagate” were all part of an elaborate ploy on the part of the Powers that Be to restrict internet freedoms. I do think that these small puzzle parts could become part of the basis for an argument that some sort of control is needed, and I suspect that whatever controls are put in place will benefit the corporations that now seem to “own” much of the internet’s prime real estate, rather than those of us who simply want to use it for our own purposes.

Fascinating timeline, GS. Thanks for sharing it. You’re right that it does look pre-planned, particularly given the way it started. And some of Trump’s minions are still trying to spread it around, surprise, surprise.

Yes, although I’m far from a religious person in the standard sense of the word, that act hit home for me as well. I feel the same way when I discover that mosques or synagogues have been desecrated by hoodlums. Something about the deliberate desecration of a sacred space, even if that space isn’t my own, really goes against the grain.

Thanks, Justin. The attempt on Gabrielle Gifford’s life, and the murder of six people and injury of 13, filled me with shock and horror at the time. I actually did not realise that Jared Lee Loughner was yet another conspiraloon—and it must have been a terrible feeling to know that you’d passed along warnings, but this one had slipped under the radar.

Similarly here: we have created briefs on any number of Hoaxtead mobsters, but the ones that concern us most are the ones we don’t know about…yet. We don’t know if/when some mentally disturbed person will decide to conduct what Kris Costa euphemistically calls “open source investigation”, possibly involving weaponry. We hope it won’t happen, but when people like Rupert show up outside Christ Church School bragging that they’re armed with a knife, they can expect a swift reaction from the community.

What I can confidently predict, however, is that if/when such a thing happens, the fruitcakes will argue that:
* It didn’t really happen.
* It was a false flag event designed to discredit the fruitloops.
* News reports are biased and unfair and waah waah waah ad infinitum.
* The person or persons involved were stitched up because they “knew too much”.
* The event in question was reported upon before it actually happened, because these morons don’t seem to grasp the concept of “time zones”.

Coyote said “…it must have been a terrible feeling to know that you’d passed along warnings, but this one had slipped under the radar” – yes, somewhat. More intense, I think, just sheer shock that my hypothetical scenario became a reality, and such a horrific one to boot. I actually caught myself wondering if I could have caused the tragedy by imagining similar scenarios – very irrational.

A friend did eventually help me to see, that the info I provided authorities was much too general for anyone to have acted on in any case. My belief that I was “sending a warning” was probably a tad delusional in itself.

In any case, the days of consequence-free misuse of this internet tool, created to facilitate the flow of beneficial knowledge originally, has to come to an abrupt end. Soon.
And the ridiculous assumption that “new technologies” can’t be harmful in themselves, only in how they are used, has to be confronted. You create a technological wonder, you better build into it some means to prevent its misuse. What if this guy had killed everyone in the pizza place? No one else could be held responsible? Grrrrr!

The notion of an elaborate ploy implies that there is some sort of coherent forethought and planning. No, it’s not as clear as that – on the part of the authorities, it’s simply a failure or refusal to act and in some cases that appears to be quite deliberate. Nobody’s sitting in an office in Whitehall dreaming these things up.

The hoaxers themselves act quite organically IMHO… i.e. the idea for putting the kids on youtube via a mobile phone video was inspired by the failed Aberdeen hoax; didn’t they take that guy’s kid off him? . In turn pizzagate, or an element of it at least, seems to draw from Hoaxtead. The UK mob seem to be a relatively small inter-connected clique as far as I can see. And it’s not surprising that some across the pond would pick up on the ‘failed scripts’ from over here.

Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to imply that you were saying there’s a deliberate ploy to shut down internet freedom—more that this is a thing I’ve heard argued, and I don’t believe it.

I do think that the hoaxes tend to feed off one another, and that those who perpetrate them tend to try things their friends might recommend (like getting kids to do video clips about alleged abuse, “just like that other fellow did”).

I had a good laugh at one guy’s video who filmed inside Comet Ping Pong who was conspiratorially saying “There’s children going in and out of that back secret room.”

I had just watched another video of the owner of Comet Ping Pong showing another conspiranoid around the premises and happily showing him the back room which is the room the children and their families celebrate their Birthday parties.

Establishments like this have always had private rooms for family events such as Birthdays.,,,but oh no the conspiraloons don’t believe a family establishment celebrate children’s parties.. they “conduct paedophile activities and child trafficking!”…Sigh..

Sigh … You are probably right of course about social media companies. I think I have come, reluctantly, to realise this. I hope – rather than believe – that a tipping point will be reached where it will become socially unacceptable to be facilitating hate crime and disgusting hoaxes; where it will start to hit where it hurts for no-conscience corporations and where it is required that police are helped not hindered.

I also agree that the real issue is the reluctance to apply existing laws and we’ve seen this very clearly on the Hampstead case where numerous laws have been broken but not enforced. I think that as we see more attendant issues, law enforcement will be forced to address the post truth internet age. They will need to skill up significantly to do this!

Things getting desperate at CCN.Here Bigears brings up his ring after taking on board psychoactive frog juice.All of course in the name of making the world a better place.
Delivered courtesy of MK`s Devils.

Notwithstanding the Insanity of Bigi’s Shamanic Bathroom Habits and Fecal Channeling of Mel Ve’s Soul, this “hoax” harassment of innocent victims online has gotten very dangerous. That Jerad Miller guy in Nevada who killed two cops in CiCi’s pizza is another prime example. The people at Comet must have been terrified. The unmitigated Gall of these Bums is astounding! What can people do to curtail this criminal activity. The Sandy Hook Hoaxsters have encouraged crimes and perpetuated threats also. Imagine how the deceased children’s parents feel? Why no injunction for their sake? Baffling.

It doesn’t work like what? Did you read what I put? Sweden had already questioned him, closed the case and let him leave a free man.

Suddenly after the leaks they wanted to ask more questions and for 6 years he has been inviting them to pop over to the embassy and question him over tea and scones, no problem at all. The prosecutor didn’t want to but strangely now has after refusing to do it for 6 years.

All this doesn’t strike you as being a little odd? Why on Earth would you simply not jump on a plane to go and see the a guy and question him? British police go abroad to question people all the time so what’s the issue that you are on about? It is nothing unusual at all.

Do you really think it is a coincidence that after the leaks and the yanks wanting him, Sweden suddenly changes it’s mind and wants him back for a cosy chat in one of their cells?

Britain can’t extradite somebody under the protection of an embassy, so I fail to see the the point of extradition timescales as he would be in a Swedish cell and they can take as long as they wish.

You do believe in innocent until proven guilty, yes? If Sweden has a case then let them present it, it doesn’t appear to have been able to the first time around though, they closed it and let him go!

I think the problem is a deeper one, and has to do with the unfettered ability for nutcases to share their deranged theories with others, especially when those theories involve targetting innocent people. We need to start looking into the way social media platforms and search engines aid and abet this victimisation, and they need to become subject to laws regarding defamation and harassment, just as any other corporations or individuals are, under the law.

I really don’t see any other way to get this thing under control, and I fear what could happen if it isn’t reined in as quickly as possible.

For some reason I find it hilarious that Jones would drop pizzagate like a hot coal once he realises that the dreaded MSM has figured out, and is telling a very interested general public, that it’s fake news. As you say, I think the fake news purge is currently building up to tsunami strength, and sites like Jones’ will be swept away. The thought makes me smile.

After looking at that Aussie Cult he was raised in, he looks like “Lebensborn” too! lol I never trusted him or anything that has “wiki” in it’s name, especially “wikipoet”!! hahaha I’ll bet that idiot “Sands” is conducting a “tunnel search” like the “sandy hoaxers” in the defunct Fairfield Hills Mental Asylum!

Interesting discussion. I have read that a man was recently arrested for threatening a Labour MP on social media. If the threat was credible and real, and not just stupid banter, then yes, he should be held to account for his actions. But making a threat is not the same as actually carrying it out.

Among other events, in the last twelve months, we have seen a political assassination – a brutal murder – take place on UK soil – the first in a quarter century to occur in the UK.

The man convicted of her murder, in spite of leaving a ‘trace’ (having a history of ordering far right magazines and the like) and also apparently having been photographed at least one extremist right wing political rally, apparently wasn’t on the radar screen of the intelligence services……so it seems to me that the vast complex of state intelligence failed to protect a democratically elected MP (regardless of your views on her personal politics – that is, or should be, irrelevant).

Why has May, and Cameron before her, not called in senior people from M15, M16, etc and read them the proverbial riot act? Why have senior people not resigned? Why, for that matter, have the mainstream media only given grudging coverage to the trial of her assassin?

Some posters want to see massive increases in resources for the police to, well, police pretty much everything on the net. But the UK is in (as far as I tell) ‘cost-cutting’ mode. I am not seeing how this circle can be squared. If you want more police, you should vote for parties that want to increase the size of the state sector, but the UK electorate largely votes for the Tories and UKIP that want to reduce, the size of the state sector, to lower taxes, and to, well, screw the poor, basically.

The actions of the idiots, nutters, and in some cases, criminals (whether deluded, reckless, or intentional) behind the Hoaxstead and Pizzagate hoaxes do seem to me to lend weight to those forces who wish to increase governmental controls on freedom of speech on the internet. On the other hand, the right wing gutter rags like the Mail and Sun will continue to ply their trade (they being part of the ‘mainstream’, ‘respectable’ media). El Coyote – unless I misread him/her, apologies if so – isn’t troubled by this potential outcome and seems to fully support it.

” I still don’t completely buy this argument, for a couple of reasons—including the fact that the hoax itself, while we think of it as large and all-encompassing, is in fact tiny and obscure in internet terms. ”

IIRC, it was claimed that there were several million views for the footage of the kids talking to camera that was put on Youtube. I don’t know if these stats were ever validated, and if so was it made clear that it was several million discrete IP addresses, or a relatively small number of addresses repeatedly viewing the same Youtube video.

I’m actually not sure what the answer to this conundrum is, tdf. I am in favour of free speech as a principle, and don’t think it should be curtailed. However, to my mind there’s a difference between free speech and hate speech/harassment, and I’d be in favour of looking at ways to ensure that the latter could be policed more effectively. People need to understand that just because their words are “spoken” online, they don’t go into a huge void, never to be seen or heard again. As with any other form of publishing, the internet can be dangerous if misused. And people who misuse it need to face the consequences of their actions. How do we get from here to there, though? That’s a discussion we all need to have, and it goes far beyond the purview of this blog. I think these are important questions you raise, as they speak to the idea of checks and balances between freedom and responsibility, privacy and public safety. The question, as always, is where to draw the line, and who should draw it?

I don’t know if they were ever able to verify which it was, but in terms of the scope of the internet, a few million views is really just a drop in the bucket. That said, for those affected by the hoax, a thousand views of something vile with one’s child’s name on it is huge.

The experiences you’ve shared here put me in mind of the experiences of people who warned the authorities of the developing bubbles and, in some cases, outright frauds in the years running up to the 2008/2009 financial crisis – specifically IIRC there was one financial analyst who repeatedly warned the authorities in relation to the Madoff funds.